It’s sunny and 73 today; it’s gotten a bit chilly in the mornings now though, you can tell that winter is on the way! Plus, it’s only supposed to be in the upper 60s the rest of the week!

1A was first today. They are learning to read each others’ names, so one student each day calls out roll. Instead of saying “here” like we say in the US, they say “it’s me”. I don’t know if that’s a British thing or what, but it just sounded strange to me when I heard that. We reviewed body parts and numbers 1-20. They knew the body parts really well, except when I said “touch your hand”, no one knew what that was; some touched their heads, others their feet, arms or legs. I asked Marina if they knew “hands” and she said yes, so I don’t know…maybe they all had brain farts? And they seem to have trouble pronouncing numbers if I don’t say it right before them, but they’re only six…we’ll work on that!

Second and last hours were 3A and B with Noelia; I haven’t seen her or the classes for a while, not since the first week I was here! I love those classes; they’re so nice! I quizzed them on flashcards of classroom objects (i.e. ruler, pencil, pencil sharpener). I asked about what colors they were and “did they have a _____ pencil case?” Later I showed them pictures of rooms like dining room, library, garden, bathroom and asked then how many plates, books, flowers…there were. I wouldn’t mind having more classes with the third levels (perhaps trade the fourths for more thirds?!?!)…unfortunately, that’s not how it works.

Third was one of the five-year-old classes (I can’t remember which, I don’t have my schedule totally down yet) with Ana. We watched a short video about parts of the body (head, shoulders, knees and toes) but we didn’t sing the song. Instead they did a worksheet and Ana said I could look for more Halloween stuff. I’ve looked for so many things—the next time someone tells me I can look for more activities, I think I’m going to start on Thanksgiving.

Fourth hour was 4B (oh joy!). I read them the story about Tom the Cowboy and Sue Ellen, that I read 4A last week and that’s really all I did. After that Ana Belén said I could look for more—wait for it—Halloween activities. Then she left the classroom for a minute to go get something (bad choice with a class like that!) and one person asked me to go to the bathroom. I said yes, so like ten others asked me and went (even though I really didn’t say they could go). Then one of the “good” students told me they really didn’t need to go to the bathroom, that they go there to talk…GREAT!  Analen (what I’m calling Ana Belén from now on) came back and was like “we don’t let them go to the bathroom during class” I apologized, because I didn’t know and then she yelled at them for taking advantage of me and made them copy a worksheet…which they pretty much deserved, I decided.

Xoxo,

Court